Sailormoon Japanese curry

Japanese curry is one of my favourite comfort foods…and it’s good for you too (in a sense). I first came across Japanese curry and most Japanese cuisines mostly from Sailormoon actually. Lita was always a good cook. She brought amazing bentos to school with her all the time. Serena on the other hand was a clumsy glutton of a heroine. In episode 66 Serena had to cook something for Rini to bring to school the next day because she felt sorry that Rini didn’t have a mom to cook meals for her. But to do so, she had to demonstrate her cooking skills pass the taste test with both Darren and Rini.

The kitchen was a mess and the dish was unappealing, but the meal in the end it tasted good. Darren (Tuxedo Mask) even praised our little heroine. It wasn’t until I was a lot older that I realised that the dish was Japanese curry, not the normal curry but a Japanese one. Many years later after searching through the asian supermarkets I came across a package that I had never seen but was vaguely familar, and it was an instant Japanese curry sauce pack. I was estatic. The memories of Sailormoon all came rushing back to that one episode and before I knew it I was determined to make the curry.

Japanese curry differs from the Indian curry because of the lack of variety of spices used and that it’s also slightly more sweet. It’s different to Vietnamese curry (which I also love) because in Vietnamese curries, coconut milk and cream is often used to make the curry sauce more rich. Vietnamese curries contain more liquid as well and are made to have bread dipped in them.

There are many different instant curry sauce packages out there, the most popular from what I’ve seen is the Golden Curry brand. Now I have tried this brand once and I don’t understand the fuss about it. To me the smell is unpleasant and borderline sickening, reminding of gravy gone off and the colour and flavour is somewhat a little too dark to what I’m used to as well. I might give it another try one day to reconfirm this but for the time being, I’m staying completely away from it all.

The brand I use was this one here.

It comes in mild heat, moderate and hot which most brands do. It is quite easy to make and takes under 30minutes (and you can put the rice on in the rice cooker). Read more for the recipe

Method1. Place water, carrot and potato into a medium pot and boil from cold. (~10mins)

2. Sautee/brown onions and meat in a large saucepan until meat is just cooked

3. Pour water, carrot and potato mix in with the onion and meat and bring to boil.4. Break curry sauce cubes into to saucepan and simmer on medium heat while stirring until sauce cubes all dissovle. Keep stirring until you reach the consistency you desire.